Abstract

The author examines the emergence of the concept of citizenship, showing that it was originally conceived as actual possibility to exercise political rights and become a magistrate. The author starts from Aristotle's definition in the "Politics" and from examination of the texts of the Attic orators (Lysias and Demosthenes), which describe citizenship as political participation. In the Roman era, on the contrary, this notion acquires a legal trait that tranforms it from an idea of participation to that of belonging to a legal-political order. The emergence of the concept of sovereignty in the modern era will sanction this transformation against such authors as Marsilius and Machiavelli who tried to restore a notion of citizenship more attentive to participation than to inclusion.